For many years people have been using C or C++ as a starting point for developing their hardware and systems. This is because these languages are widely known, quick to write, and give an executable specification, which allows very fast simulation. C or C++ versions of standard algorithms are widely available, which allows easy reuse of legacy and publicly available code. For system-level design, they allow hardware and software descriptions to be described in a single framework.

However there have been two drawbacks. Firstly, C and C++ don't support the description of some important hardware concepts, such as timing and concurrency. This has led to the development of proprietary C-like languages, which haven't been popular because they tied the user to a single software supplier. Secondly, C and C++ have to be translated manually to a hardware description language, such as VHDL or Verilog, for hardware implementation. This step requires specialist resources, is time-consuming, and often introduces errors that are difficult to find.

The first of these problems was solved by the development of SystemC, which is now a widely-accepted industry standard that adds hardware concepts to C++.

The second of these problems is solved by the development of tools like SystemCrafter SC, which allows SystemC descriptions to be automatically translated to VHDL and Verilog.